Aiming to Dominate Real Estate Brokerage: Robert Reffkin, CEO of Urban Compass (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: What else is interesting in the strategic story?

Robert Reffkin: While searching for the most valuable products and services to this business, we surveyed our clients and asked them what they cared most about. They cared most about helping them answer questions like what’s the right price for a home and how do you find a buyer. Our focus is on creating technology around the research on valuation tools to help our agents advise on prices. Then we identified a bunch of digital and non-digital exposure strategies to make sure that sellers are in front of all the right eyeballs as much as possible.

Initially, it was more around building a mobile app. As we progressed, it was becoming around saving time for agents and building valuation tools so that they can be better advisors. From a strategy perspective, I think it’s very easy when you’re young to not know exactly what the most valuable things are. We had to narrow that down again and again. We did that by asking the agents. What’s unique about us is we all come from different backgrounds—professional services, consulting, and banking client services where you’re used to asking clients what do you want. We took that approach with agents. I really believe that our number one competitive edge is the collaborative culture of people from different backgrounds.

Sramana Mitra: Your original investment thesis was that mobile was going to be a big driver in delivering the value that you wanted to deliver. How has that played out? How big a role does mobile play in your business today three years in?

Robert Reffkin: Mobile traffic has continued to grow relative to desktop traffic. It makes things more helpful but it’s not going to shift the market.

Sramana Mitra: It’s not a key driver.

Robert Reffkin: It’s not a driver. Drivers are agents and sellers who can tell you the right price to sell. That’s the driver. There’s so much money floating around. A lot of startups are not really driving value.

Sramana Mitra: That’s exactly where I was going with my question. There is this frenzy in the venture industry of funding everything mobile. Let’s just flap a lot of money on mobile and see what comes out of it. Your story is an illustration of the fact that the real value driver is not mobile. Mobile is a side note.

Robert Reffkin: The real value is data, which leads to valuation by taking data and converting them into insights.

This segment is part 4 in the series : Aiming to Dominate Real Estate Brokerage: Robert Reffkin, CEO of Urban Compass
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